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Definitely history heavy, so if you don't really enjoying learning about history, I would skip out on this course. But as a history major, Professor Boswell was a really fantastic instructor. Readings can get dense throughout the semester, but other than that, the workload is quite light for this course. Highly recommend! ","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/819267","quality_rating":5,"difficulty_rating":3},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:24:24.890843+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTM5Mjk4MDE0","source_instructor_id":"rmp:819267","instructor_name":"Laird Boswell","course_label":"HIS120","course_id":null,"course_uid":null,"review_date":"2024-05-03 16:03:43 +0000 UTC","comment":"Prof. Bowsell is amazing lecturer and he makes history extremely engaging. He also is very funny and often would tell us personal accounts of the historical topics we are going over in class which is super cool. This class has 2 major papers but other than that it isnt a burden and I often just had to read interesting books.","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/819267","quality_rating":5,"difficulty_rating":3},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:24:24.890843+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTM5MTg5NzM1","source_instructor_id":"rmp:819267","instructor_name":"Laird Boswell","course_label":"HIS120","course_id":null,"course_uid":null,"review_date":"2024-04-17 04:30:07 +0000 UTC","comment":"Great lecturer. Manages to keep things engaging and can be kind of funny, but you definitely have to somewhat like history to enjoy the class. LOTS of reading (like a book a week, but you can sparknotes a bunch of them) and frequent papers. TA is much more responsible for your grade than Boswell is ","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/819267","quality_rating":5,"difficulty_rating":3},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:24:24.890843+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTM4NTAwODc3","source_instructor_id":"rmp:819267","instructor_name":"Laird Boswell","course_label":"HIS359","course_id":null,"course_uid":null,"review_date":"2023-12-04 02:28:29 +0000 UTC","comment":"I can't speak to his assignments or grading since I was just auditing the course, but he is a terrific lecturer!  I thoroughly enjoyed this course.","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/819267","quality_rating":5,"difficulty_rating":3},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:24:24.890843+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTM4MTkyNzI4","source_instructor_id":"rmp:819267","instructor_name":"Laird Boswell","course_label":"HIS120","course_id":null,"course_uid":null,"review_date":"2023-08-28 21:04:55 +0000 UTC","comment":"One of the best lecturers I've ever seen - he makes the content very interesting to listen to. However, would not recommend taking this class as a graduation requirement for STEM majors since the workload can be pretty significant - very reading and essay intensive","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/819267","quality_rating":5,"difficulty_rating":3},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:24:24.890843+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTM3NTQ5Mjk4","source_instructor_id":"rmp:819267","instructor_name":"Laird Boswell","course_label":"HIS120","course_id":null,"course_uid":null,"review_date":"2023-03-28 15:21:45 +0000 UTC","comment":"Professor Boswell is one of the best professors I have had here at Madison. He is very passionate about the material he teaches and makes lectures engaging for students. However, the course is extremely heavy with reading material, as you are expected to read a full book every week. Would recommend for those into history/reading","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/819267","quality_rating":5,"difficulty_rating":4}],"total":48,"page":1,"courses":[{"course_uid":"course_74d27dbe14c68ae655b14b27","course_id":"HISTORY 120"}],"matched":true},"socialImage":false}}